Tony Aardvark. Debunking commonly held myths

[ Only 77 climate scientists of 10,257 who were surveyed replied,
so how can the conclusion that there is a 97% consensus be accurately or ethically made? ]

False Numbers Used to Calculate 97% of Climate Scientists Are in Agreement About the Cause of Global Warming

The Number Game Behind the Alleged Consensus

A poll was conducted amongst environmental scientists where they were asked whether or not they believed that global warming is due to human activity. According to the results of that poll, 97 percent agreed that it was caused by human activity. While this seems like a significant amount, the numbers are skewed. There were 10,257 scientists that were polled but only 77 of those actually replied to the poll. So, in actuality only 97 percent of those 77 respondents concluded that global warming was due to human activity, not 97 percent of the entire 10,000+ panel.

This poll was conducted prior to the COP17 in Durban. So, of course, this inflated poll was used to further push the agenda of climate activists who are scaring everyone into believing that the end is near even though there was been a decline in that belief. This happened even though there was a majority of people who believed that climate change talks would soon die out. Pushing this issue were the supposed journalists at the Guardian who believe that all climate deniers are irrational.

The small number of climate scientists actually supporting the Al Gore/IPCC claims of catastrophic global warming and the actual AGW “predictions” has always been a major embarrassment. As a result, the left/liberal/greens have been forced to fabricate bogus support that can’t stand up to any form of scrutiny.

This isn’t the first time that numbers were played with in a way to further the leftist climate change agenda. There was a previous claim that 2,500 IPCC scientists supported the IPCC report that was originally released in 2007. It was later found out that only 25 scientists actually supported the claims made in the 2007 report.

In response to this number game, researchers from the University of Illinois created a short online survey in an attempt to draw up more numbers in support of the report. This is the survey that is first mentioned in this article. They sent the survey to 10,257 scientists and received 77 responses. The survey consisted of two questions, one of which was the dead horse issue of whether or not global warming was directly linked to human activity. Seventy-five of the 77 responses agreed with that notion.

There you have it! The highly touted 97%! It’s nothing more than a farce.

In addition to the flubbed numbers, the researchers only asked specific scientists to participate in the survey. The specifically stayed away from the branches of science that have been vocally critical of the AGW theory. This includes solar scientists, astronomers, meteorologists, space scientists, physicists, and cosmologists.

During this same time period, there were also a number of warming alarmists complaining about CO2 emissions in London. At that time the Climate Reality website stated:

London has been called “the world in one city,” and with the summer 2012 Olympic Games, that has never been truer.

In this case Climate Reality was pretty spot on; the London Olympics stopped worrying about their carbon footprint pretty quickly.

During this period there was also an article in the Guardian regarding hurricanes, floods, and wildfires. This, of course, linked all of these disasters to man-made climate change with the inflated 97% figure used to really drive the point home.

If one were to really do the math, 75 scientists who agreed with the poll divided by the full panel of 10,257, the real consensus dwindles down to a lackluster 0.73%. This makes one wonder, if Anthropogenic Global Warming was really a concern then why does such a steep majority of scientists disagree with the notion?